The Bucks legend – his jersey was retired in January of 1990 – is filling the position opened up when Kelvin Sampson accepted the lead assistant job with the Houston Rockets.

Moncrief seems a peculiar fit at first, as it’s tough to make the logical connection with Scott Skiles or John Hammond many of the other Bucks assistants have. But if his coaching philosophies are tied to his performance, they certainly appear to match-up with the current staff. Moncrief was a terrorizing perimeter defender throughout the 80s, twice winning defensive player of the year and four times landing on the NBA’s all-defensive first team.

In addition, Moncrief was an adept slasher despite his lean frame. He averaged 16.7 points over 10 seasons in Milwaukee. As I noted last season when hoping for grand things from Corey Maggette, Moncrief did more work at the free throw line than any other player in Bucks history, a credit to both his determination and longevity.

As a coach in the NBA, Moncrief previously served as Don Nelson’s defensive assistant on his well staffed Dallas Mavericks teams of the early 2000s. He spent another season serving under Nelson in Golden State before working as a consultant for the Beijing Ducks of the Chinese Basketball Association.

Jeremy Schmidt writes the Milwaukee Bucks blog Bucksketball.com. Follow him on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook.